Good morning. What is a skilled trade in the age of AI? For that matter, what’s a job? Ford CEO Jim Farley told me in Detroit this week that the line between engineers and hourly skilled-trades workers “is completely blurred out” as software, robotics, and machine learning reshape the assembly line. Meanwhile, at Fortune’s inaugural AIQ Summit in New York yesterday, a panel of Fortune 500 chief people officers told editor-in-chief Alyson Shontell that AI has killed the org chart. “We’re going to give you all the tools,” said Drew Holler of homebuilder Lennar, “but it’s your responsibility to upskill yourself.”

That can sound empowering or demoralizing, depending on your perception of AI and ability to master it. The job of a leader in this climate is not just to deploy new technologies but to leverage them to reimagine work and reinvigorate workers. By speaking to CEOs at the Ford Accelerate Summit this week and studying the companies successfully deploying AI on Fortune’s new AIQ 75 ranking, I’m getting some clues on how to get this right.

Create a learning organization for every worker. I studied history and politics in college with no intention of ever becoming a historian or politician. I viewed the degree as a credential, a ticket that would widen the aperture of possibilities in my life, allowing me to learn on the job. We treat the skilled trades in a different way. You train to be an electrician to be an electrician. The aperture feels narrowed: Okay, kid, here’s your license. Have a nice life!

But that’s not how people or careers work, especially now. Dallas Sutton, a 17-year-old who was celebrated in Detroit for studying to be an auto mechanic, is a case in point. She told me that she actually wants to be a vet, too. Being a mechanic is fun. She wants to fix her own car and make good money to pay tuition. She also wants to get credentials to be a part-time firefighter. Sutton sounded like we all sound at 17: figuring it out. What’s different now is that the figuring it out never ends, as AI remakes the work we thought we’d settled into.

Make it cool. Dave Regnery, CEO of Trane Technologies, is creating learning labs for skilled trade workers modeled on programs to train athletes. He wants it to feel innovative, cutting edge, and cool. Dan Peyovich of Dycom, who started out as a carpenter, is also taking a holistic approach, expanding benefits and training in topics like personal finance to help the employees who string fiber wiring and maintain telecom infrastructure to see their jobs as a career. Patti Poppe of PG&E described employees dangling from ropes off helicopters, which made working at the utility sound like an extreme sport. Really.

Tackle the tough stuff. When I asked Verizon CEO Dan Schulman about the skills shortage, though, he immediately pivoted to existential questions about AI’s impact on society and the nature of work itself. He believes we’ll “get to some form of AGI [artificial general intelligence] in the next six to 18 months.” Two years after that comes “the era of quantum.” And he predicts humanoid robots could be outperforming humans by 2030. If that’s the case, convincing kids to consider a career in construction might not be our biggest problem.

Schulman is a man who spent a lot of time in Silicon Valley as CEO of PayPal, which may explain why he brought a more doomsday tone to the discussion. He’s trying to figure out how to make Verizon’s 250,000-plus workers and contractors more nimble, innovative, and determined to win. He thinks a lot about what could go wrong, but he’s also intrigued by what could go right. It’s those possibilities that drew him away from retirement on his Montana ranch with his wife, a bunch of bears, and 500 head of cattle. Does the pace of AI ever make Schulman long to return to the simple life of a cowboy? No way. “I’m loving it,” he told me as we walked offstage. “What a time to compete!”